Fish dying

sankhamg

Reefing newb
I'm having a problem in my tank where all the fish I put in ends up dying yet all the corals are thriving. Plus my water parameters are well stable. Most of them die suddenly and I realized before they die they are kida showing breathing difficulties. But I have couple of damsels who are not affected. All the other bigger fish face the same problem. Anybody got an idea whats going on?
 
Moreover, they only die when introduced to the main display tank. I had a goby living in my refugium for about 4 months but the moment I put it in the main display, it died within 2 days! :S
 
You need to list all your parameters, exact numbers. Odd that they are fine in the fuge, but not in the tank.

How are you finding them? What do you have for water movement (powerheads). Do you have surface agitation? I am betting it is either lack of oxygen in the water, or lack of water movement trapping gases in the water column.
 
+1 on oxygenation

Other possibility is that the damsels are killing them. They are known for being mean and are able to kill fish much larger than they are.

Which types of fish have you tried that have died?
 
There's no difference in water parameters in sump and the display tank. It's 0 amonia 0 nitrates and below 20 ppm nitrites. I'm running a 3200 GPH wave maker and another 1500gph power head inside the rock work to get the flow going. I got a 200gal skimmer and currently running on 4 20,000k 20w high power LEDs.

I've added emperor juvenile, pecular clown, gold headed goby, sweet lips, Indian trigger. All of them died in a similar way. Now there's 2 damsels, 3 dancing shrimp, 3 boxing shrimp, 2 cleaner shrimps, couple of brittle stars, clam and LT animone all doing fine.

Once I did see a small mantis shrimp in the tank (i dont know how it got in) and time to time I can hear the clicks he makes but I doubt it can kill this many fish. Even if that's the case it will be impossible to find the fellow because of the rock work. It's about 130LBS of live rock in the display tank. :S
 
I found weird that the damsels are the only ones still alive. So maybe is not lack of oxygen or parasites in your tank. Maybe they are killing the other fish. That's why your goby was alive when it was in the refugium, but then it died when you put it in your display tank, that makes a lot sense.

I'm thinking the water that you use in your fuge is the same you have in your display tank. It should be a good idea if you can post your water parameters.
 
So do you have any surface agitation? If not, you may not be getting the gas exchange in the water. You should have a good ripple effect on the surface. I find it hard to believe that the damsels killed the clowns, they are the same family. Unless the clowns were very small, and you had an aggressive strain of Damsel like the Dominoe Damsel.
 
Yap I'll look for that cos it is Domino damsels I have :P but it's gonna be pain to catch them from the tank haha will have to come up with some trap :P
 
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